Analyzing The Current State Of The Blogosphere

Blogs can be wonderful things. They can be informative, and can perhaps be taken as trustworthy authorities on various subjects. They can be irreverently grim and/or humorous to levels mostly avoided by the industry of old media, a freedom which can be exploited to their great advantage. They can be quite inclusive as far as communication is concerned between writer, editor, and reader, enabling them to appear more “down to Earth” than their antecedents.

On the whole, they comprise an open and wholly essential medium; one that is undoubtedly worth celebrating continuously and progressing long into the future.

But blogs can also be rather frustrating things, too, according to Greg Zachary and John Markoff, both quite esteemed contributors to the big media machine that is The New York Times, who were recently found in attendance for the latest episode of John C. Dvorak’s program Cranky Geeks, released earlier this week to the wide world of Web video viewers. Both writers, despite their brief spat over financial legalities in the business world, put forth a few synonymous impressions during the show on the rise and the evolution of the blog industry, which I thought appropriate to relay to you, our readers.

I’ll synopsize: blogs are now more or less PR transmission switches replete with heavily truncated and thoughtless drivel.

A lovely message sent by way of the ol’ greybeards, eh? To tell you the truth, I happen to agree with such a conclusion. Somewhat.

Of course it wouldn’t be fair to pool all blogs and bloggers together into one mash labeled ‘Nonsense’. Despite the general ease with which most blogs are constructed and maintained – whether they be published by lone individuals or incorporated as million-dollar investments - not all are created equal.

A good many are clear duplicates for sure, and are chock full of redundant and flavorless news. Some hold to strange and amorphous structure that only serve to confuse. A sizable percentage are so undisciplined as to regularly employ poor editing standards and offer little in the way of inventiveness and originality. They provide to the reader naught but shallow distillate and generous shares of fluff to boot, and for that they should surely be called for what they are: useless.

Yet a few do rise above the fold. They may be popular destinations; they may not serve especially grand readerships. Nonetheless, they hold themselves to (or at least strive to) a standard set by historically significant media outlets – active and retired – and produce content that is, for lack of a better phrase, worth all the attention they can gather – and perhaps more still. Apart from Profy, some fine examples with names you may recognize are: Slate.com, Truthdig.com, Consumerist.com, and GigaOM.com.

The discontent voiced by the persons mentioned several paragraphs above is, again, no doubt warranted. There is a definite lack of true value in the work produced by the majority of blogs big and small. A strong focus on continuity and speed (here we can level a critical eye at the Engadgets and Gizmodos of the blogosphere) cannot make up for a lack of thought and measured analysis; which, when all is said and done, can plainly separate and distinguish the substantive from the empty.

But it’s appropriate to measure the industry justly, and in doing so, one will inevitably arrive at the conclusion that, yes, most of what is published is not worth one’s time and energy to follow, but that great finds can be had for one’s blog roll all the same.

Note to readers: If you have a favorite blog that you’d like to share, please do so in the comments below.